The Massachusetts men’s soccer team is just that, a team. They are a close-knit unit that thrives on team success and group accolades. Because of that they are the defending Atlantic 10 champions and entered Sunday’s game against St. Bonaventure undefeated and seated atop the A-10 standings.
With a competitive St. Bonaventure club arriving in town, the Maroon and White hoped to parlay its team approach into remaining unbeaten in the league. With a 7-1 win, the Minutemen did just that. However a scary thing, so to speak, happened on the way; an individual stole the spotlight.
With three goals and three assists on the weekend, senior tri-Captain Jeff Deren became Massachusetts’ all-time leading goal and point scorer, besting the previous marks of 96 points and 40 goals set by Mike Butler and Randy Jacobs, respectively. With 98 points and counting, Deren is excited and glad to finally call the record his own.
“It was exhilarating,” said Deren. “The goals just kept coming and coming for me and when that one hit the back of the net, it was like a relief that it was finally over with.”
Deren, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, wasted little time in tying the school record on Sunday as he opened the scoring against the Bonnies 4:40 into the first half. Classmate Yuri Morales took a feed from junior Ptah Myers and slid a pass across the box to Deren, who beat the keeper to his open right side. After Myers hooked up with Morales for a goal of his own at 27:14, the stage was set for Deren to etch his name in the UMass record books.
Senior Andrew Eicher’s long lead pass would find Myers in stride, and the junior slid a pass past the last St. Bonaventure defender to Deren, who preceded to beat the keeper one-on-one to his left at 47:53, and assert himself as the greatest goal-scorer to ever don the maroon and white.
“Its hard to explain what a feeling it was because you don’t understand what you’ve done until you have time to think about it,” said Deren. “I’m just happy to play soccer, it’s a game that I love and everything’s just seemed to fall into place for me here.”
Jeff Deren’s day, however, was not over at Rudd Field as the newly crowned career-scoring champ would add to his legacy. In finding Myers with a quick pass across the box for a score at 54:57, Deren added the career points record to his resume.
“Both records are equally exciting. I was just glad I could do it at home in front of my friends and family, because they’ve been supporting me the whole time I’ve played soccer.”
In having watched each of Deren’s 41 career goals, Head Coach Sam Koch knows what his tri-captain means to his team both in terms of offensive output and the overall impact he has on his teammates.
“Any time you have a pure goal scorer on your team it just takes a lot of pressure off,” said Koch. “He means a lot. To score as many goals as he has certainly helps us out a lot. He’s just a great all-around player and to get the record is great for him.
“We have a lot of other guys on this team who are dangerous as scorers themselves. You can’t just stop him and stop our team, and because he’s so good it’s really helped others get more space. He knows how to find the open man when he’s marked tight, and because of that he’s been dishing off some great assists.”
The Minutemen are currently 9-4-1 overall as they continue to reside atop the A-10 at 5-0-1. Deren hopes to add to his 98 points as he continues to lead UMass in defense of its conference title.
